‘Every September I feel renewed’

BRUCE WAINMAN

Hamilton Spectator file photo

Bruce Wainman, director of the anatomy lab at McMaster University and a professor of pathology and molecular medicine at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, has been named one of 10 winners of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, “Canada’s most prestigious recognition of excellence in university teaching and educational leadership,” given by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

No one in Bruce Wainman's family had attended university when he came of age in Sudbury in the 1970s.

He has more than made up for that ever since, attending Laurentian University and never leaving the world of academia, forging a reputation as a passionate and innovative teacher whose lectures inspire students and make them laugh.

Wainman — the director of McMaster's anatomy lab and professor of pathology and molecular medicine — is "the complete package," according to university president Patrick Deane.

Students feel likewise: he has won the McMaster Students Union Teaching Award four times.

He recently received a 3M National Teaching Fellowship, which is "Canada's most prestigious recognition of excellence in university teaching and educational leadership," said a McMaster announcement.

The fellowship is awarded by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and he is just one of 10 professors selected out of 33,000 eligible to receive it.

The Spectator chatted with Wainman about his teaching philosophy, his views on students these days, and about taking his dream vacation.

Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How do you feel about winning the fellowship?

A: It's exciting, because I applied for it, but you don't know how you will be seen by others. And it's good for the university; it's been a couple of years since we've had one.

Q: There's a quote by W.B. Yeats featured on McMaster's website: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." What does that mean to you as far as teaching goes?

A: Lighting the fire, well, if you stand in front of students and just tell them things they can see in a book, it's not going to help them learn or help them get excited about the material, and gain insight. And that is your job, to get them to understand why it's important or else there is no value to it.

Q: You started your career teaching a tutorial class to nursing students at Mac in 1983. You have talked about that as a turning point, seeing how excited the students were.

A: There's a whole positive feedback loop of teaching: if you are enjoying it, the students enjoy it more, and then you do as well, and it builds from there.

Q: Why did you want to study and ultimately teach in medical sciences?

A: I was always the sort of person interested in how things work, but especially how the biological world worked. Others seemed mostly interested in the monetary system, or machines. But for me, the body was the most exciting machine.

Q: You hear about teachers at all levels experiencing burnout. You are known for the enthusiasm you still bring to the class. What keeps you from getting jaded or burnt out, what is your fuel?

A: I guess it's because every student is new, and they bring their own perspective and excitement to it. And so every new student and every new year is a challenge. Every September I feel renewed, I love it, and it's that excitement that fills the tank. It's amazing to me, really. But I can't imagine not finding that whole experience interesting.

Q: You have come up with an acronym to describe effective teaching: PIE.

A: Yes. There are three thing main things you have to do to light the fire in students. The first is preparation — know what you're talking about and have some idea of an appropriate presentation so you can give them the information. The second is insight: what can you offer that makes it more real for them, more topical. And the last thing is enthusiasm. Maybe you won't be quite as excited as I am when you get in front of the class, but you have to show it is an important thing and worth being interested in, because if you can't be excited how can they?

Q: You have talked about the one question you get in class that can even bring you down.

A: The difficult thing, as an instructor, is realizing at times that students sometimes have other goals than you do. That is, we're there to convey information and truth and beauty; we're there for the learning. But when a student comes up to you after a lecture and asks, "Is this on the test?" it's kind of crushing.

Q: They are focused on getting a good mark, ultimately building their resumés for a job.

A: And you have to understand and respect that. But you hope it's about more than that.

Q: What do you think is the value of a university education, broadly speaking, whether it's medical sciences or social sciences? Patrick Deane has been critical of the call in some quarters to produce "shovel ready" students; he believes the mission of the university should be broader and deeper.

A: Patrick and I would see eye to eye on that, and it's funny because he's from the arts world and I'm from the science world … You come to university to learn how to think, and learn, although I wouldn't be so arrogant as to suggest we'll teach them all those skills, but we will help to give them insight into how to solve problems. And I still think that what we teach are important skills for life, the themes that run through biology and art and science … You could learn from Hannibal and the Carthaginians something about how people respond under stress, and learn more about how you feel in those situations by understanding your own physiology.

Q: How have students changed over the years?

A: As far as I understand it, the new generation has been going to hell since the days of ancient Greece (laughs). I'm not sure they change as dramatically as people say they do … I would say that students today are technologically savvy, and lately with a tightening of job markets they might be a bit more anxious than they have been historically. And I see a bit less tolerance, I think, for longer explanations in class. They seem in general to like to have it faster, like jump cuts in a film. They are comfortable with short intense education periods rather than 50 minutes of a lecture. But their brains haven't changed. Evolution takes millions of years, so perhaps there is a bit less of an attention span.

Q: What future projects at McMaster are you excited about? You have developed ebooks as text books at the school?

A: I'm excited about the potential for that technology, enhanced ebooks, to transform how we deliver material to students. We have put out three of them now, and they seem to be selling. I wrote an ebook called "Pharmacology Revealed," because I was frustrated with the texts out there. I don't like the way most of them are written, they don't explain dynamic concepts dynamically … I think it's the future of education. It's a bit like, if you are nearsighted your whole life, and then get glasses. Ebooks look like people think; they are able to transfer the way I understand it directly to the student, rather than just through the printed word.

Q: And an ebook isn't as heavy in the backpack, either.

A: Electrons are pretty light.

Q: What do you like doing away from work?

A: I like to do outdoor things: tennis, fly fishing, running. I run every day I can. It's a great way to ground yourself in the real world and feel it around you.

Q: Tell me about your family and what they are up to.

A: My wife, Thorel, teaches primary school for kids who can't read or write. She's dedicated to bringing these kids up to develop academically. We have two children: my son, Markku, is in performance guitar and studying this year in Finland. My daughter, Liisa, started a master's degree at Brock …. Those names, they are reasonable names in Sudbury. We knew so many people who were Finnish.

Q: You are director of McMaster's anatomy lab, and every spring the anatomy program hosts a Service of Gratitude for families who had loved ones that donated their bodies for research and dissection. In the sweep of things you do at the university, what does that service mean to you?

A: In many ways it's the axis around which the life of the anatomy lab rotates. Every year, we discharge that debt to the donors. We get to tell families how important they are. We are planning it at this time of year, and you feel that pressure to make sure they understand the depth of the gratitude we feel.

Q: You have told me about how you see both ends of the spectrum in the anatomy lab, the cadavers whose lives are over, and the young students learning from them. Do you think much about your own mortality?

A: I don't think about it so much as I accept it. In the lab, you are confronted with what we come to every day. It permeates everything. But I just live it; I don't think about it. I realize how long I probably have, and I think I can appreciate how precious life is, perhaps more than most I would say.

Q: You are about to leave on vacation. Where are you going?

A: To Argentina, and meeting a guide who will take us across into Chile, where we'll do some fly fishing, paddling, horseback riding. I've been dreaming about this since I was 10, ever since I saw pictures of condors and guanacos in National Geographic and wondered what it would be like. And this is my big chance.

To read more about Bruce Wainman, and McMaster's Education in Anatomy program, see Jon Wells' three-part series Body and Soul at thespec-reports.com.